The Magician King by Lev Grossman

Self-indulgent, angsty, emo, depressive, and manic can all be qualities to illustrate Lev Grossman’s The Magician King, a series that is an allegory for figuring out life as a 20’s something, self-centered adult. Here’s the thing about this book and the series as a whole, you can’t take it too seriously. Once you take it too seriously, the outlook on life brings you down. This is not a happy series even though I’m hoping it’ll end with some redemption and sacrifice. I have to say that Quentin is gradually changing, becoming more adult, even though things keep happening to him randomly that propels him through the character growth. In the end, I think that is the thing that bugs me about this story, yes life just happens to a lot of people in their 20’s without their control, but to structure an entire story around happenstance quests makes the characters feel like passengers in a sinking ship they have no control over.